


What is in Your Nature Blooms Inside Your Blood

by Yris (Darkboudicca)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alpha Kara Danvers, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/F, Good Person Lex Luthor, Kara Danvers Has a Penis, Omega Lena Luthor, Slow Burn, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:54:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25641652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkboudicca/pseuds/Yris
Summary: A sort-of Practical Magic Supercorp AU with Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics. Lex and Lena are witches and there's a curse on the Luthor bloodline that makes anyone they fall in love with die. Lena, the stronger witch of the two siblings, casts a true love spell as a young girl to protect her heart, for a lover who couldn't possibly ever exist.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 75
Kudos: 413





	1. The Creak and Thud Inside Your Chest

**Author's Note:**

> This is an ABO story with Alpha Kara Danvers and Omega Lena Luthor. If that’s not your thing, it’s on you to hit the back button on your browser.
> 
> This work is inspired by Practical Magic and is in no way a faithful retelling of that story. I've changed a lot of the details to make sense with the Luthors etc. If you feel so moved, do tell me what you like about the story. 
> 
> Also, I play fast and loose with Supergirl canon/timelines etc. I don't want to hear about it if you're mad I dont faithfully stick to whatever canon spits out. PPS: I prefer Michael Rosenbaum's Lex from Smallville for this version of Lex. And I think that's everything. Kthnxbai
> 
> Warning: mentions of suicide in this chapter. Nothing explicit or detailed at all.

Love took everything away from Lena. It claimed her mother when she was four. Her mother, who had always been a strong swimmer, drowned before her very eyes and Lena, despite the magic in her bones was powerless to stop it. She cast every spell she knew and nothing worked. She nearly died too, trying to push her body through the water to reach her mother. It was as if her magic abandoned her the moment she needed it most. Later, when Lionel walked her into the Luthor mansion, his eyes red rimmed and bloodshot, it was Lex, the brother she barely knew outside of weekend visits, who promised her that everything would be all right. And when Lionel finally succumbed to his grief and guilt a few years later, it was Lex who held her hand through the funeral service as silent sobs wracked her body. 

Lillian was stone faced beside them through the eulogy, and during the aftermath at the house. Every one who was someone in Metropolis, be they magic or mundane, turned up to pay their respects to the Luthor widow, and to gawk at the now fatherless children.

No one dared comment on Lena’s bastard status in Lillian’s presence for fear of making an enemy of her. But that didn’t stop their children from reminding Lena of her place in the pecking order.

Maxwell Lord, scion of a magic house as noble and ancient as the Luthors, never hesitated to press any advantage he could over Lex, and ever since Lena had entered the picture, he had made her the target of his pointed barbs. It was there, in the garden at the Luthor mansion, at age eight when Lena learned that every thing that had ever gone wrong in her life flowed from love.

Lena sat beside Lex staring unseeing at the sandwich Lillian had pressed into her hands with a hissed murmur to eat something before she wasted away, when Maxwell upended what little stability Lena had left.

Once Lillian was out of earshot he announced, “Pretty soon it’ll be you two going in the ground.”

Some of the older kids gasped.

“Shut your filthy mouth, Lord.” Lex stood up beside Lena, his fists clenched.

Maxwell shrugged and took a casual bite of his sandwich. “Why? It’s true. My mom says there’s no poison more potent than a Luthor’s love. I wonder how many poor fools you two will kill before you off yourselves too?” 

Lex lunged at him and barely got a hit in before they were broken up. 

But even Lillian’s frosty displeasure didn’t stop Lena from hexing Maxwell later while he and his parents were leaving. 

That night before bed Lillian sat them both down and confirmed the truth of Maxwell’s words, and the terrible curse on their bloodline.

“I never want to fall in love,” Lena said vehemently as she clutched her teddy close to her body.

“Oh, my dear,” Lillian said, her voice soft as tears glimmered in her eyes. “That’s not really something we can control.”

That night, Lena lay awake, her heart racing and her mind hard at work on the problem of love.

*****

It takes her two years to craft the perfect spell. And so, on the harvest supermoon that year, Lena wakes Lex at 11:45pm.

He follows her down to the garden half asleep. “Lena, what are we even doing this late?” 

Lena paced ahead of him unerring under the light of the moon as they made their way to the center of the garden. Once they reached the fountain in the middle, Lena began her preparations.

“It’s a true love spell.”

Lex scoffed. “I thought you never wanted to fall in love? Besides love spells are the most dangerous kind of magic, mother won’t be happy about this.”

“She’s not going to find out or I’ll tell her about how I helped you cheat on your robotics final last year.”

Lex gasped. “You wouldn’t! And besides it wasn’t even cheating.” 

Lena smirked and ignored his grumbling. “I figured out a way to protect myself from the curse. This is a spell for my true love.”

Lena began her enchantment as the clock struck midnight.

“She will be the strongest alpha in the world.” Lena swirled the ingredients she had painstakingly gathered. “…with eyes as blue as the sky, and red like the rose. Her hair will be like captured sunshine. Her skin impervious to harm. She will soar through the skies like a bird. She will be able to hear my voice from across the world, and stop her enemies with a single breath. Her colors shall be blue, red, and gold. She shall be a symbol of hope and compassion for all.” Lena added her final ingredient, plumeria petals, and watched as they swirled and rose far into the night sky, buoyed on the breeze.

She and Lex stood staring after the blossoms until they were long out of sight.

“What you just described is impossible, Lee.” Lex said gently. 

Lena looked at him and smiled, smug. “Exactly. If she can’t exist, then I’ll never fall in love. And if I never fall in love, I’ll never have a love to lose, or die of a broken heart.”

Lena dusted her hands off and strode back to the house.

Lex lingered a few seconds behind her. His magic had never been as strong as Lena’s but standing there, he felt a shiver come over him—an ineffable feeling that his sister had worked something profound. Lena had always been too clever for her own good.

As Lena slept content in her bed that night, 35,000 light years away Kara Zor El awoke in her pod. She couldn’t tell what had awoken her but there was a strange, sweet smell that was like nothing she had ever smelled before. And inexplicably, a single white petal sat on the console in front of her. Just then, the engine in her pod started up and for the first time since she had been trapped in the phantom zone, her pod started to move again. “I’m coming Kal El.” She gathered the strange petal into her hand and curled it over her heart. 

*****

Six years later, Lena and Lex have their first major disagreement when Superman reveals himself to the world and proves that alien life is real.

“I warned you love spells are dangerous work!” Lex shouted.

“It’s not him!” Lena insisted. “He’s nothing like the spell I created. First of all, he’s a him!!”

Lex shot back undaunted. “His eyes are blue and they also literally turn red when he shoots laser beams from his eyes. HE FLIES, Lena! He has freeze breath and super hearing and he’s indestructible.” Lex shoved Jimmy Olsen’s first photo of Superman under her nose. “He is exactly as you described. You have to meet him. This could mean the end of the curse for us!”

Lena shook her head and shoved the picture away. “No, no way. I’m not doing that! So he’s got some things in common with my spell, but he’s not something I conjured!”

Later, when Lex resigns as CEO and goes to work for a secret government agency, Lena will pretend not to know his reasons.

“Why on earth would your brother abandon your father’s legacy to go play sidekick to Superman?” Lillian asked, baffled.

Lena shrugged and avoided meeting Lillian’s gaze. “Lex has always been an idealist.”

A rift bloomed between Lena and Lex for the first time in their lives. 

Lena retreated into her studies, and spent all her time during breaks from MIT, tinkering in the labs beneath LuthorCorp—doing her best, like her father before her, to marry science and magic for the good of Lillian’s bottom line. The labs are her only refuge from Lillian’s full court attempt to turn her into CEO material now that Lex has decided to go into public service as Lillian derides it.

Lena’s letters to Lex go unanswered. There are four years where she doesn’t see him at all, and Lena began to fear she had lost her brother for good. 

*****  
Lena awoke from a fitful sleep one cold Metropolis morning nearly six years after Superman’s reveal, with a feeling of dread in her stomach. As she blinked the sleep from her eyes, her brain caught up with the feeling in her stomach. _Something’s wrong with Lex._

Lena flexed her left hand and stared at the pale scar in the middle of her palm with horror. When she had first moved into Luthor manor after her mother died, when she had felt the most alone in the world she had ever felt, Lex had taken her hand and cut a line in her palm and then one in his. He pressed their bloodied palms together and swore they would always have each other, no matter what. The mark had always had a faint thrum to it and a slight heat, a constant reminder of her brother with her, and she with him. And with the rift between them, Lena treasured the reassurance of the mark on her palm. 

But that morning, the mark was cold. The tiny thrum, quiet. The scar as ordinary as it would be on your average human.

*****  
National City

Kara loved dawn more than any other time of day. Ever since she had arrived on Earth, nearly two decades after her baby cousin had, she woke with the sunrise. She had slept off and on through the long years trapped in the Phantom Zone, but the unrelenting darkness of the Zone still pressed at her eyelids when she slept. For her first year with the Danvers she couldn’t sleep inside the house. Even though it was nothing like the pod, the walls still felt close. And so she slept on a waterproof pad in the backyard surrounded by the glow of lanterns, which Eliza strung up for her without a word, her blanket, and the breeze off the ocean surrounding her. Back then and now, watching the rays of the sun reclaim the earth from darkness became a ritual she relied on to keep her own demons at bay. 

So, she was already awake when her phone trilled Alex’s ringtone in the quiet of her tiny studio apartment.  
Kara may have loved mornings, but Alex assuredly did not. Kara idly wondered if her sister was coming off a double shift.

“You’re up early,” she said with a smile. 

“Hey,” Alex said, her tone almost timid. 

Kara had never known Alex to sound so small. “Alex, what’s wrong?”

“We need you to come in,” Alex said, abrupt. “To the DEO, I mean.”

Kara frowned and set her coffee mug down on her side table. “Um, ok. Is there an alien in trouble?”

“Something like that,” Alex replied. “I don’t want to freak you out, but Kal El’s missing.”


	2. All I Said Comes Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More unnecessary exposition (I can't help myself) and handwaving on the magic, but our characters finally converge. dun dun dun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd. All errors are my own, sorry.

Kal El, _Clark_ as he insisted Kara call him is nowhere to be found on earth. Worse yet, even Lois hasn’t been able to reach him via her watch signal. Kara refused to contemplate what it could mean that no one has been able to reach him for the last twelve hours.

When she arrived at the DEO minutes later, Alex is terse and thorough relaying the facts: Kal El and Lex Luthor were investigating an anomaly in Metropolis and they missed check-in. That’s not anything to get alarmed about given the initial low-level threat assessment, but when they failed to answer their official hail _that_ raised red flags. The agents on duty did their due diligence: they sounded the alarm, and scoured the city and all their channels for chatter. Then they notified Alex, the newly minted deputy director. 

Alex herself participated in processing the scene of Kal’s last known location. Let with no clues, no witnesses, and no bad guys bragging about taking out Superman, their only recourse was to call in Kara.

Kara’s lack of willingness or interest in working with the DEO was no small source of tension between her and Alex—not to mention Kal El. 

Kara had arrived on earth a decade and a half too late for the last duty her parents had entrusted to her. A refugee and the last daughter of a dead planet, her pod had opened only for her to be greeted by armored DEO agents. Back then, the DEO had been charged with keeping the existence of aliens a secret. No one wanted to upend the idea that humans weren’t the only sentient beings in the universe.

Eliza and Jeremiah were lead scientists for the DEO at the time. It was Eliza who slowly helped Kara find her footing, and Jeremiah who (she would later learn) kept the higher ups from throwing her in a cell with the other indefinitely detained aliens. 

The Danvers’ were kind to her, and in Alex she formed a friendship and then a sisterly bond that Kara counted on to make sense of her new world. 

But it wasn’t until Kal El revealed himself to the world, that Kara knew her baby cousin, the spitting image of her uncle Jor El, was alive. 

With Superman’s very public reveal, the DEO went from clandestine organization with a mission to keep alien presence under wraps, to clandestine organization with an even broader latitude beyond containment. The DEO had indulged the Danvers’ in helping her to “assimilate,” with the expectation she would be their weapon. That wasn’t her way.

Kal El could be the poster boy for the American Way all he wanted. Kara had resisted the agency’s attempt to get her to suit up. She sometimes wondered if Alex had been fast tracked to deputy director in the hopes she would be able to influence Kara to work for the agency. In the six years since Superman’s revelation, Kara had reached a detente with the agency that allowed her to live a civilian life on her own terms, and in return she would assist on cases only at the highest threat levels. 

Superman missing in action was DEFCON 1.

By 10am Kara had nearly worn a hole in the DEO’s concrete floor with her pacing, not to mention the stress her hovering caused the poor specialists glued to their computers trying to find any trail at all to follow.

The little evidence they had to go on painted an incomplete picture: Kal El and Lex Luthor were in an alleyway in Metropolis, and then they were just gone. Poof! 

Surveillance footage from businesses nearby had captured a flash of light in the alleyway around the same time they disappeared. Nothing in the alley could have caused the flash.

“Do you think it could be CADMUS?” Kara worried aloud.

Alex sighed and tossed aside the tablet she had been scrolling through. “If they had Superman we would have heard about it by now. There’s no way they wouldn’t gloat about it.”

“There’s gotta be something we’re missing!” Kara insisted. “What kind of weapon could make a Kryptonian just vanish?”

Alex looked as worried as Kara felt. “We’re getting nowhere with this. Come on.” Alex said. She tossed her tablet on the nearest workstation and strode toward the exit.

“Where are we going?” Kara said as she caught up to her in a flash.

“Maybe we’re looking at this all wrong. We’ve been working this from Superman’s angle: CADMUS, his entire rogue’s gallery, but we haven’t touched the other angles. We haven’t looked at Lex Luthor at all.”

Kara frowned. “Lex? What do you think he had to do with it?”

“I don’t know. But what do we really know about the guy? He gave up his plushy CEO gig to become an analyst for the DEO and draw a civilian salary. Before, he was one of the richest men in the country. He was born a billionaire. LuthorCorp has defense contracts and their fingers in almost every pie imaginable.”

Kara nodded along slowly. “Right, right. He's rich, mostly rides a desk, but he’s smart, reliable, good with gadgets. You’re thinking what if he was the target and Superman just happened to be there too?” Kara trailed off unconvinced by her own conclusion. 

They had reached the balcony by that point, and Alex stepped easily into her embrace. 

“You ready?” Kara asked.

Alex nodded and squeezed her eyes shut. Kara grinned, despite the circumstances. Alex always got a little green when she had to fly with Kara.

“Drop me and you’re dead!” Alex warned as they took off. 

Kara scoffed, but waited until they had been in the air for a few minutes before picking up Alex’s thread. “So say you’re right, say Lex is the target. How’d they neutralize Kal? It’s not like would-be kidnappers would have been expecting him to be there, so they couldn’t have planned it that way.”

She felt more than heard Alex’s soft sigh. “I’m hoping we’ll find something actionable at his apartment.”

……..  
Something was wrong with her scrying crystal. There had to be. The alternative was too grim, too gruesome to contemplate. 

Lena had been standing over her map of the world for fifteen minutes, her scrying crystal doing an excellent impression of the spinning blue wheel of death.

Right then, her crystal spinning aimlessly, her cellphone rang shrill in the quiet air of her apartment. The crystal shattered

_Mother_ Lena thought. If Lillian, queen-of-being-stoic Luthor wasn’t managing her energy leakage, things were worse than Lena could imagine.

She spotted her cell phone on the far side of the room and snapped her fingers. It materialized in her palm and Lena answered briskly.

“Mother.”

“He’s not dead!” Lillian sobbed. “He’s _my_ blood. I’d feel it if he was dead.”

Lena felt the weight of all the years between them lodge in her throat, and for a moment she couldn’t speak. She choked back her tears and called on every ounce of CEO training Lillian had drilled into her head.

“What do we know?”

Lillian continued to wailing. 

Lena gritted her teeth. “Mother! What do we know?” Her shout managed to break through to Lillian.

Lillian’s voice broke on nearly every word. “Those witless government agents know even less than we do.” She said. “He was with Superman when they disappeared.”

Astral projection was not one of Lena’s gifts, that was more Lex’s skill, but at that moment, she felt as if she was floating outside her body.

“Superman?” Lena repeated. She could barely hear her own voice over the rushing of her pulse.

Lillian was acerbic even through her tears. “Yes, the Man of Steel himself. Whoever did this, they figured out a way to weaken him. There was a green glow and then a blinding flash of light and they were just…gone.”

……..

Kara huffed a sigh for the fiftieth time as she idly flicked through Lex Luthor’s record collection. “There’s nothing here, Alex.”

“Keep looking!” Alex shouted from the bathroom.

Kara rolled her eyes. They had been in Lex’s apartment for an hour and they had discovered nothing interesting or relevatory beyond the fact that Lex hid a love of screaming death metal bands in sleeves for classical music. 

His apartment was spotless to a degree that would starve even the most enterprising of rodents. There wasn’t a single mote of dust anywhere. His book collection included rare first editions and were neatly organized by author. Kara tended to organize her books by color, but to each his own. His pantry, however, offended her down to her Kryptonian toes. There was every kind of healthful food imagined stocked neatly in his panty. And the fridge fully stocked with more vegetables than Kara had ever seen outside of a farmers market. 

Lex’s apartment painted the picture of a thoroughly ordinary human. Kara was increasingly annoyed he didn’t have a single piece of candy for her to munch on while they completed this utterly pointless reconnaissance mission. What kind of monster didn’t keep a fully stocked candy dish?

Kara idly wondered if Alex thought this would help her manage her anxiety over Kal being missing. It definitely wasn’t working. 

Kara had reached the end of the record collection when she noticed a strange symbol on the back of one. It was an intricate swirl of gold in no human language she recognized. 

She couldn’t say what possessed her to slip the record from its sleeve and set it up on the record player. She debated placing the needle to start the record, and was about to dismiss the idea when she decided to use her x-ray vision on the player. _You’re being paranoid_ she thought. Until she saw hidden in the player was a small compartment her vision couldn’t penetrate. 

Her heart rate ticked up a notch. It was lead-lined. Six people outside of her and Kal El knew that they had x-ray vision. Kara knew she should call Alex over. This definitely counted as _finding something_.

There was no obvious way to open the compartment that she could find by running her fingers along the player. She did the only thing she could do.

Kara placed the needle on the record. No music began to play. At first, Kara thought she had set the record up incorrectly. She was about to stop it when there was a quiet click and the needle slipped off. She could now see a gap in the body of the player.

“Found anything?” Alex called.

“No.” Kara said as she eased open the player. Nestled in a neat stack in the lead lined compartment was folded sheets of stationary paper monogrammed with a swirling, looping ‘L’ in an elegant script. They looked like letters. “What?” Kara murmured. She drew the letters out and quickly sifted through them. 

There were dozens of them spanning several years, and were all from the same person. She speed read through the letters, and knew three letters in that Lex had never replied to the sender, his sister Lena. But the stationary was worn for handling. Lex had read and re-read them but never responded. Whatever had caused a rift between them, his sister seemed desperate to reconcile. She learned that the first letter coincided with Lex stepping down as CEO and starting work at the DEO.

Once she started, Kara couldn’t stop reading them. It’s like she hungered for every word. Despite her thoughts swirling with questions, of why hide these in this way? Despite knowing she was looking at a clue she couldn’t parse, Kara couldn’t bring herself to let Alex see the letters. They are electrifying. Full of entreaties to reclaim a relationship lost, at turns angry, at turns despairing.

The most recent one had arrived just the day before Lex disappeared with Kal. There are references to an oblique conflict, confusing asides and mentions of a heritage Kara can’t parse for their significance, but by the time she finishes, Lena Luthor looms large in her mind.

_Mother thinks I should marry Jack…have a few babies, pass on the bloodline. He’s sweet, loves science, and doesn’t know a thing about who…what we really are. He keeps asking. I can’t bring myself to say yes, despite everything. You know I never wanted to be in love, and given our heritage marrying Jack is probably the safest thing to do, but every time I open my mouth to say yes, no sound comes out. I feel… It feels like a betrayal. How could I betray someone I’ve never met? Will never meet? I wish you would answer one of these, Lex. I miss you. I miss my brother. There’s a blood moon tonight: trouble’s coming. Be safe, brother._

__

__

_All my love,  
Lena_

“What have you got there?”

Alex’s words startled Kara out of her reverie. 

“Oh, nothing.” Kara answered. She kept her back to Alex as she eased the record player closed. “Just thinking maybe screaming death metal would make this search more interesting,” she said.

Kara tucked the letters into her inner coat pocket before Alex could see, but her sister wasn’t paying her any attention at all. 

“Maybe you’re right, maybe this was a waste of time,” Alex conceded.

“Maybe,” Kara said quietly. 

Alex and Kara were halfway to the front door, when they heard the distinct sound of a key turning in the lock. 

The door swung open and there stood the most beautiful woman Kara had ever seen. Long dark hair framed a pale face, and eyes that were stormy green with shades of blue. Somehow, Kara knew she was looking at Lena Luthor.

Alex flashed her fake FBI badge. “I’m Agent Alex Danvers, this is my sister Kara, a special consultant for the bureau.” 

Alex gave a quick jerk of her head and a wide eyed stare to Kara before she got the message.

Kara lurched out of her reverie and fumbled for the consultant badge Alex insisted she carry out in the field. Kara held it up without opening it, and totally missed Alex’s barely contained exasperated eye roll.

“You must be Lena Luthor,” Kara said, her voice soft. Kara drank Lena in. She couldn’t figure out why she was having such a reaction. Lena Luthor was certainly beautiful, probably the most beautiful omega she had ever seen. But Kara felt…flummoxed by beauty for the first time in her life.

Lena did something funny with her hand to the doorframe. Her hand moved so fast that even Kara couldn’t quite track it. 

Lena walked in to the apartment and folded her arms across her chest. Kara’s breath hitched as she watched Lena’s fingers spread, and tighten on her arm under. her breasts.

“Cut the bullshit. You’re DEO. Where is my brother?”


	3. Pull Me Down I Was Born to Lie

“We don’t know,” Kara blurted out. “He and Kal disappeared on a mission and we’re trying to find them.”

Lena looked startled at her immediate confession. “Kal?” She asked.

“Kal El…Superman,” Kara stuttered. She fiddled with her glasses to keep her hands from reaching out to Lena. Her face felt flushed, she was very aware of her heart thundering in her ears, and she was having great difficulty controlling her breathing. Her nostrils seemed determined to open as wide as possible to take in more of Lena’s scent. She knew she was acting weirder than normal, and dimly wondered if this is what humans felt like just before they had a cardiac event. 

Alex tried her best to salvage the situation. “Now wait a minute, we’ll ask the questions here.” 

Lena rolled her eyes at Alex’s bluster, and called someone on her cell. She glared at both of them while she waited for the call to connect. 

Kara quailed under Lena’s glare. She didn’t dare look at Alex for fear of her sister’s expression confirming what she already knew: she was fucked. Kara hadn’t acted this oddly around people since she first landed on Earth and Alex took on the burden of teaching her how to pass as an all-American, girl-next-door type.

In the space of a few minutes Lena Luthor had unsettled her past the point of stupidity. She knew if she opened her mouth she would confess her real identity, which would probably force Alex to kill Lena before killing her. She squeezed her lips and prayed to Rao for fortitude, or for a swift death, if the cascade of sensations in her body did herald some kind of imminent Kryptonian heart attack.

“Who are you even calling?” Alex asked.

Kara glanced at her sister from the corner of her eye and could tell by Alex’s stormy expression she was on the verge of either literally exploding or pulling her gun. 

Lena didn’t bother to respond, she just raised her pointer finger and continued ignoring them. 

To be safe, Kara stepped in front of Alex, unsure who exactly she was shielding from whom. She tuned in to the conversation Lena was having.

“Yes, they’re here. Just as you suspected.”

 _Put me on video._ Kara heard the other person say.

Lena tapped her phone and turned the screen to face them.

“Ms. Grant!” Kara exclaimed. None other than the Cat Grant, President Marsden’s Chief of Staff and Kara’s former boss, peered out at them from Lena’s phone.

“Kiera, close your mouth, you look like an idiot.”

Kara snapped her jaw shut.

Alex, thoroughly fed up with everything and everyone, shoved Kara aside. Kara decided to be kind to her sister and let herself be moved.

“What is going on?” Alex said.

“Ah, the smarter Danvers,” Cat said, managing to sound more imperious than the Queen of England as she assessed them from Lena’s tiny LPhone screen. 

“I’ll be brief,” Cat continued. “I don’t have all day to to let you two play at Sherlock Holmes. The President has authorized Ms. Luthor to take lead in the investigation into Superman and Lex Luthor’s disappearance. That means she’s in charge. The full might and resources of the DEO are to be made available to her, understood?”

Kara didn’t miss Cat’s glance at her when she said _might_ and _resources_. Cat had made no secret she disapproved of Kara working in the shadows instead of plastered all over TV screens and magazine covers like her cousin was on a nigh daily basis. 

Kara ignored Alex’s silent fuming and pushed ahead. “Does General Lane know?” She asked Cat. 

“He’s been…briefed and won’t be a problem. Now if you’re done wasting my time, I have to get back to assisting the leader of the free world.” Cat cut off the call and the three of them were left to consider each other in silence.

Lena cleared her throat. “Now that we’ve got the chain of command sorted, I’d appreciate your waiting outside while I collect my brother’s laptop.”

Alex bristled at Lena’s tone. “We already searched this place top to bottom, it’s not here. He must of had it on him when they disappeared.”

“I’m sure I know my brother’s hiding places better than you,” Lena said.

Alex opened her mouth to issue a rejoinder then seemed to think better of it. She cut her eyes at Kara. “Fine,” she said with a faux polite smile on her face before leaving in a huff. 

She paused just outside the apartment when it became clear that Kara had definitely not followed her.

“Kara!” She hissed.

Kara jolted out of staring at Lena. “Right, we’ll just…wait outside,” she backed towards doorway babbling. Kara winced as Lena slammed the door in her face, once she joined Alex in the hallway. 

“What the hell was that about?!” Alex whisper-shouted.

Kara wished to Rao she knew. “I don’t know, she showed up and I just wanted to spill my guts.”

Alex sneered at her. “Yeah you wanted to spill something alright. I can’t believe you chose today of all days to act like you finally figured out what your dick was for!”

Kara blushed to the roots of her hair. “What, no, I…pfft, come on Alex, it’s not like that.” But Alex had already turned away from her to glare at the apartment door. 

“Whatever,” Alex dismissed her rambling. “Tell me what she’s up to.” Alex said, gesturing at the door.

Kara seized on the out Alex had given her, and lowered her glasses to use her X-ray vision to see what Lena was up to in the apartment. 

“Well?” Alex demanded, impatient. “What’s she up too?”

“Um, I don’t know.” Kara wrinkled her brow perplexed and scanned the apartment again to be sure. 

“What do you mean you don’t know?!” Alex sounded nigh apoplectic.

“I mean I don’t know, Alex. The apartment’s empty. Maybe, maybe Lex has a hidden compartment somewhere.” 

Alex looked as baffled as Kara felt. 

Kara hastily shoved up her glasses when the apartment door opened and Lena stepped out. In her arms she carried a gray laptop. 

“Wait, where’d you find that?” Alex asked Lena, as she exchanged confused glances with Kara. 

Like I said, Agent Danvers, I know my brother’s favorite hiding places.” Lena locked the apartment and turned to face them. “Shall we?” She said with a jut of her chin toward the elevator. 

When neither Kara nor Alex made to move, she sighed and brushed past both of them and headed for the elevator. 

Kara and Alex followed after her in silence, both lost in their own thoughts. The trio rode the elevator in silence, and no one spoke until they got outside and Lena tried to herd them into her waiting town car. 

“I’m sure we can make our own way back to National City,” Alex said.

Lena cocked an eyebrow and sneered. “Oh, do you have a method of transportation that can get you across the country in under an hour?” 

“Actually, we—“ 

Alex interrupted Kara, “We’re grateful for the assist,” she said. Alex gestured Lena into the car ahead of them. Behind her back, Alex mimed zipping her mouth shut to Kara.

Kara mouthed, _I’m trying!_ She slid into the car behind Lena and determined to act normal.

**Author's Note:**

> Story and chapter titles taken from the song "All is Now Harmed" by Ben Howard.


End file.
